Extreme weather the 'new normal', UN chief says

Extreme weather is the new normal and poses a threat to the human race, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday as he sought to revive deadlocked global climate change talks.

Ban's intervention came as efforts to agree a symbolic extension of the U.N. Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that obliges about 35 developed nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions until the end of 2012, looked to be faltering.

In a speech to almost 200 nations meeting in Doha to try to get a breakthrough, Ban said a thaw in Arctic sea ice to record lows this year, superstorms and rising sea levels were all signs of a crisis.

"The abnormal is the new normal," he told delegates at the November 26-December 7 talks. He said signs of change were apparent everywhere and "from the United States to India, from Ukraine to Brazil, drought (has) decimated essential global crops".

"No one is immune to climate change - rich or poor. It is an existential challenge for the whole human race - our way of life, our plans for the future," he said.

The failure to agree a Kyoto extension is blocking efforts to lay the foundations of a new global U.N. deal that is meant to be agreed in 2015 and to enter into force from 2020.

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At the last attempt in 2009, a summit in Copenhagen failed to agreed a global deal to succeed Kyoto. Kyoto requires countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels from 2008 to 2012.

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Robert Stavins, director of Harvard University's environmental economics programme, said there was some hope that an accord could be struck in 2015 despite past setbacks.

"It's a blank slate and there is always hope for long-term happiness," he said, likening the situation to somebody seeking a new romance after being twice divorced.

Ban said that Kyoto was a valuable model even though Russia, Japan and Canada are pulling out, leaving a group led by the European Union and Australia that account for only 15 per cent of world greenhouse gas emissions.

The defectors say Kyoto is no longer relevant because emerging nations led by China and India will have no targets to curb their soaring emissions from 2013. And the United States, the second biggest emitter behind China, never ratified Kyoto.

It is an existential challenge for the whole human race

Ban also said that rich nations should step up aid to help the poor cope with climate change after a $10-billion-a-year funding programme promised for 2010-12 runs out.

World leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama set a separate goal of $100 billion in aid from 2020 at a Copenhagen summit in 2009, but did not set goals for 2013-19. Economic slowdown has made many developed nations less able to pay.

"Developed countries must give clear indications that scaled-up climate financing will flow after 2012," he said.

Developing nations also stressed the need for details. "For 2013 to 2015 we must have a clear position on the injection of capital," said Xie Zhenhua, vice-minister at the National Development and Planning Commission, who heads China's delegation.

Britain said it would spend around £1.8 billion ($2.8 billion) to finance climate change measures from 2013-15. It also unveiled new projects from Africa to Colombia, including a 98-million-pound-scheme ($150 million) to aid renewable power generation in Africa.

"If anything, the science is telling us it's now getting warmer quicker than we had previously expected," said Ed Davey, British energy and environment minister. "Our actions as a world are going slower than we had previously hoped."